I have my doubts about this patch - it's very rare you fix Python Tix problems
by changing the Tcl. What is the RCS header on the Tix.py file?
The code that is commented out works in Tcl, and the error message makes
me think that it is a Tix.py problem. Could you try replacing the Tix.py file with
the one in the latest Tix release 8.1.3 from http://tix.sourceforge.net ?
When I use that Tix with python 2.1 it works without the patch.
I've opened a bug report on tix.sourceforge.net for this:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=510928&group_id=5649&atid=105649
Could you explain this part more for me? I don't understand what you mean:
" I was able to get the DirList widget to work which looks the same in tix.py
in the python distribution. Then I looked at DirList.tcl and noticed the
lines with -window were commented out. This wasn't the case in DirTree.tcl.
I commented out the lines in DirTree.tcl and it worked."

Tix.py version from Python-2.1.1 on my system is "$Id: Tix.py,v 1.2 2001/03/21
17:24:49 moshez Exp $"
Explanation:
The code for DirList and DirTree in tix.py are identical (except for tixDirList
being tixDirTree). I compared the DirList.tcl and DirTree.tcl files and noticed
the lines with -window were commented out in DirList.tcl but not in DirTree.tcl.
Since the -window option showed up in the python exception when using DirTree, I
commented it out and things worked.
I just ran the test script I provided on my Redhat-7.2 system
(/usr/lib/tix8.2/DirTree.tcl) with and without the lines in question commented
out. It worked in both cases, thus you are probably right that my patch is not
the correct solution to the (now non-existant with 7.2) problem.
My 7-1 system has tix-4.1.0.6-53 and my 7.2 system has tix-8.2.0b1-65. Maybe the
problem was fixed along the way.

The patch is no longer in tcltk-8.3.5-76.
However I am not able to get the above test to run in
the above package release. I get:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 3, in ?
root = Tk()
File "//usr/lib/python2.2/lib-tk/Tix.py", line 213, in __init__
self.tk.eval('package require Tix')
TclError: couldn't load file "/usr/share/libtix8.1.8.3.so":
/usr/share/libtix8.1.8.3.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or
directory
Looks a problem with the tix installation, which I'll look into.

Glad the first bug is closed.
/usr/share/libtix8.1.8.3.so looks like it should be /usr/share/lib/tix8.1.8.3.so
- I've never heard of this happening on any linux system I know of.
Is this with a default canonical configure/make/install?
I have a new minor release ready to go but not yet announced.
Would you like to try it out and see if there are any problems
before I announce it. It's a bugfix release with no major changes
to the configure/make.
http://tix.sourceforge.net/dist/tix-8.1.4.tar.gz

Actually I think it should be "/usr/lib/libtix8.1.8.3.so".
The thing is I'm installing the arch independent files under
datadir (ie "/usr/share/tix8.1"); by default they end up under
libdir. So I suspect there is a relative path somewhere, like
"../libtix8.1.8.3.so" which breaks when noarch files are in datadir
and arch dependent files in libdir.
Thanks for the heads-up about 8.1.4. I'll try to take a look
at it.